Police probe 'hate-filled' campaign mailing in Shrewsbury

Tuesday

May 9, 2017 at 9:36 AMMay 9, 2017 at 9:36 AM

By Elaine ThompsonTelegram & Gazette Staff

SHREWSBURY — Police are investigating a "hate-filled" letter some residents found in their mailboxes the day before the annual election on May 2, asking them not to vote for a Board of Selectmen candidate who is Muslim.

The target of the unsigned letter was Rashid Shaikh, a native of Pakistan, who has lived in town for 20 years. Shaikh, a naturalized citizen, did not win in the five-way race for two seats. But he was re-elected as a town meeting member, a post he has held since 2008.

Shaikh said he learned about the letter on a Facebook page that local residents use to discuss personal and town issues.

After reading the letter,Shaikh said he and his family were very upset. He said his youngest son, who is in the seventh grade at Oak Middle School, stayed home from school on Election Day because of the letter.

“It was very, very hurtful. Honestly, it made me cry that people could go that low,” he said. “Absolutely every single thing in it is a lie.”

One of the allegations is that Shaikh's oldest son "has been studying free at UMass Amherst even though his father ... has been making six-figure salaries and/or profit the last several years."

Shaikh said he is paying for his son's full tuition and board.

The author of the letter also accused Shaikh, a local home builder, of seeking a seat on the Board of Selectmen to try to manipulate the town's bylaws and building department for his own financial benefit.

"The reason that I wanted to serve on the board is to give back to the town and to send a positive message to my community that we're part of this community," he said. "I love this town. Nobody is going to kick me out of this town. I believe I have the skills this town needs in this time of change."

About 20 percent of the town's population are foreign-born, the vast majority from India.

The married father of three said he reported the letter and the string of Facebook posts to the police. He said he also reported the theft of dozens of campaign signs during the two weeks leading up to the election.

Police Chief James Hester said the matters are under investigation. He said this is the only issue in town involving anti-Muslim statements that he is aware of. The police department, he said, does not know which households received the letters. He also said he does not know of any other candidate whose campaign signs were stolen during the recent election.

The unsigned letter in part said: “With what is going (in) the world of Muslim and in most of the European countries, such as England, Germany, and France, we do not want any Muslim person to be ruling our communities. … Say no to Muslim politicians.”

Shakih said when he first ran unsuccessfully for selectman in 2009, he received death threats.

“I got phone call threats every single night for a couple of weeks saying … 'We will make an example of you. How dare you run for office,’ ” he said.

He said he took one of the recorded messages from his phone to police, who traced it to a location overseas.

Hester confirmed that the phone message was traced to outside of the country. But he said the investigating officer in 2009 did not receive any information that the calls Shaikh received involved threats.

Amjad Bahnassi, chairman of the board of trustees of the Islamic Society of Greater Worcester, who lives in Shrewsbury, said that like Shaikh, he did not receive a copy of the letter in his mailbox. After viewing a copy, he said the very beginning seemed like a “normal political thing. Then, it ended up insulting the whole religion ... Asking the other religions to stand against this poor guy. It appears that this is someone who is very bigoted … someone who is very angry and misinformed.”

Rick Wobbe, a biochemist consultant who lives in Worcester, said he found out about the letter from the Boston-based Massachusetts Chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, the largest Muslim advocacy and civil rights organization in the U.S. He said he has become involved in several projects related to the Islamic community because of his guilt over not having done more to combat the rhetoric from Donald Trump’s campaign. He said he knows Shaikh because he has visited the Worcester Islamic Center several times since the election in November.

“It just makes you angry that people who are so talented and such valuable contributors, not just to society, but to my career, that these things are being said about these people,” he said.

John Robbins, executive director of the state CAIR branch, said the author of the anti-Muslim letter “seems to be slightly disturbed. He said the letter and Facebook postings are examples of “trickle-down racism” from the Trump administration.

“Unfortunately, a lot of the president’s campaign rhetoric was based around the idea of demonizing minority groups. Muslims were first in line,” he said. “I think when you have a president who openly says things like we should ban Muslim immigration to the United States, that kind of rhetoric can only trickle down to people who feel empowered to slander, smear or harass their Muslim neighbors."

Robbins said that since Donald Trump was elected, CAIR has received more than 100 calls from people asking for help. The complaints included alleged discrimination at school, at work and by airlines, and public harassment. He said there was a 400 percent increase in incidences of mosque vandalism across the country in 2016. Last month, police arrested a man accused of attempting to break into the Worcester Islamic Center.

Shaikh said to no avail, he has offered himself for appointment to several boards and committees in the past several years. He also said he is disappointed that no town official has publicly denounced the letter.

Town Manager Daniel J. Morgado said he has Shaikh's information, along with that of others who want to serve the town. He said he makes appointments based on the most qualified candidate for a vacancy. He was reluctant to speak about the letter and allegations contained in it.

"I think cowards hide behind anonymous letters and unsigned postings or media postings. I think the whole matter of social media is not good," he said. "Without question, any type of communication that singles out any individual or group of individuals is clearly wrong and should not be tolerated. But, on the other hand, for me to take an anonymous letter and then create a public display of that anonymous letter empowers the person who sent the anonymous letter."

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